By Sudharsan Ramarao
Winning the toss on an overcast morning, Tricity decided to flex its muscles against Panthers, with the exciting batting talent within the Tricity ranks. Renny Jainbi, a wristy left-hander on the likes of Saeed Anwar, came in to the game at the back of an elegant innings in the historic Mayor’s Cup game.
Shazad Butt led Tricity batting with a brilliant 55.
But cricket can be cruel at times, as Renny this time, was out on the second ball of the game, courtesy of a mistimed flick of Mallareddy Baddam, the left-arm opening bowler for Panthers who relies on line and length, more than pace. John Persaud the senior statesmen of Tricity was promoted up the order. John, an attacking batsman, tried to take on the bowlers from the start, but he didn’t last long, as he was holed out at long-on for an excellent catch from Christopher Selvaraj.
Richie Persaud soon followed John getting out in the same fashion, trying to hit Vishal Salunkhe over the top and getting caught at long-on. Tricity was left stranded at 46 for the loss of 3 wickets. The rebuilding then began. Shahzad Butt, a burly top-order batsman who is known for his thunderous drives thru the covers, joined hands with Mahesh Dassram, a protégé of the Guyanese great Shivanarine Chanderpaul.
Both Shahzad and Mahesh made sure that they put away the bad balls and rotated the strike beautifully, by nudging the balls into the vacant gaps. Shahzad, also popularly known as Shaq, was especially lethal whenever the ball was short as he either cut them ferociously over point or pulled them venomously thru the midwicket region. He also played his trademark cover drive over the extra cover region whenever the ball was full and outside the off stump.
A couple of dropped chances didn’t help the Panthers cause, as Shaq and Mahesh started to increase the tempo of their innings. Mahesh was out for a run-a-ball 19, while Shahzad eventually got out for a well-made 55 that included three boundaries. M. Jagmohan and Videshwar Mangra gave the finishing touches to the Tricity inning, as they posted a challenging 145 on a tricky wicket that kept low every now and then. For the Panthers, Vishal Salunkhe picked three crucial wickets while Venkat Nanda picked up two wickets.
Chasing 146, the Panthers were off to a rocky start as the first three wickets fell before the scoreboard read 30 runs. Kiran Vishnu, the sole batting hope for a newly built Panthers batting unit, came in to the middle sooner than he would have liked. Kiran, who has scored tons of runs at whatever level of cricket he has played, started off confidently by sweeping Mike Persaud for a boundary.
Mike Persaud, who was bowling prodigious out-swingers, was bowling with a plan. He bowled those out-swingers outside the line of the off stump forcing Kiran to reach for the ball. Kiran, who is known to be a very good player thru the off-side, eventually fell for the trap while trying to drive the ball away from his body, and giving a sharp chance to Richie Persaud who pounced on it without much fuss.
With Kiran’s wicket, any hope of a Panthers victory was also gone. The Panthers folded for a meek 77. For Tricity, Alvin Mangra, Akash Ayaina, and Mike Persaud did the bulk of the damage with the ball.
